Approx. 45 days till Gmat. Studying since about May.

[JamesP553]

Hi! Posted this in another forum want to see what some experts from Manhattan have to say. Looking for as much advice as possible!

Native english speaker. No Quant background. Spent about 2-3 months just learning the basics of Quant at a comfortable rate using Magoosh. Spent last or so month focusing on Verbal using Powerscore CR and MGMAT SC.

I know its not the best approach, and I should of been doing practice tests earlier, but I waited until I had a solid grasp of the Quant fundamentals. I didn't want to waste a test at the beginning knowing I have so few math skills.

Fast forward to now. I was planning on taking about a test a week until the official test. I have already taken two MGMAT tests.

First MGMAT CAT - With IR. Score is 600. Quant 37 Verbal 35. Was TOTALLY nervous, severely hampered quant. Ran into some timing issues as expected since it is my first test.

Second MGMAT Cat - With Essay & IR. Quant 41 Verbal 31. I feel like my timing totally improved, i was much more relaxed and that showed on my Quant. My verbal I was getting fatigued toward the middle, and had a string of 6 700 - 800 questions wrong, as well as another string of 4 questions 700 - 800 wrong towards the end of the section. I was trying to make up a bit of time Sad

Disappointed with my last verbal score, but all the questions I got wrong were 700 - 800 because I can solve the 600 - 700 verbal questions easy.

In my mind, my focus until the test is to proceed with taking a test per week, essay included, to build up stamina. I'll review all quant wrong answers and make sure I complete about 20 SC and 20 CR questions per day to stay sharp. I only practice with the hard bin of CR problems.

Here are some more details.

1) Quant on the first test I made very silly mistakes from nerves. Reviewed and have error log all questions that gave me any problems. Quant on the second test I was very relaxed, hence the improvement. Incorrect answer choices were of a higher difficulty. I'd say 60 to 75% are within what I feel is my level of "gettable" questions. Content that I am familiar with but overlooked something small. About 1/4 of the ones I got wrong are just to difficult to spend serious time focusing on.

2) On the verbal questions, I was almost always narrowing down the question to two possible answers. One of those was usually the correct one. I had a tough time distinguishing between the two. Sometimes it may of been an idiom, with the rest of the question identical. With CR and RC, RC I would make mistakes if I felt rushed, but by the middle of the test I felt "hazy". Losing my concentration and CR I was stuck between two towards the middle/end of the test.

3) As I said earlier, dates vary. Some winter, some towards spring. All Canadian schools surrounding the GTA. Richard Ivey, Schulich, Rotman, and Degroote. Degroote is my preference as that is where I recieved my undergrad (Philosophy). Hence the lack of quant skills!

Lastly, I'm fully aware that the MGMAT cats are not official material and as such will not be representative of the actual test. The reason I started with the MGMAT cats was so not waste an official test when overcome by nerves and terrible timing. I'm using the MGMAT cats to get a handle on timing and stamina.

PS. My target is 680 - 700. If I can pull of a q45 I'll be perfectly content. I just need to make sure I can get my verbal at a steady v40 or higher.

Thoughts?

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, good. You're making some progress and you also have an idea of where some of the issues lie. Responding in order.

I was planning on taking about a test a week until the official test.

Change that plan. Here's why:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... many-cats/

In short: the act of taking the test is not how you get better. You get better when you analyze the test and set up a study plan accordingly. If you're not getting at least 2 weeks' worth of study out of your analysis, then you're not analyzing well enough.

How to analyze? I'll talk about that in a minute.

Building up stamina is important, yes. When you do take tests, you do want to take them under 100% official conditions, including essay, IR, length of breaks etc. But don't take even more tests just to try to build stamina. Instead, build mental stamina while you study.

Plan out what you're going to do over a 2-hour period (I plan for 3 hours, just in case something takes less time than I think it will). Then GO for 1 hour, no stopping, no checking email, no getting up for something to eat, etc. Take a 10-15 minute break, then GO again for 1 hour. Then take a more substantial break (at least 1 hour, ideally more like 2 - or just don't study more that day).

Note: I specifically do NOT want you to do what I just described for 3-4 hours. It's actually *more* mentally taxing to study than to take a test, because when you're studying, you're trying to create new memories, not just access old ones.

Next, let's talk about how to study and then how to analyze.

First, read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly. For example, for the verbal "narrow to 2 and then what?" issue, study how to choose better between those last two.

Identify ALL of the questions on which you narrowed to two and guessed, even when you guessed right. Also include any questions where you narrowed to two and didn't have to guess, but you still did give that wrong answer a second look before you picked the right one. Answer these questions:
1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?

Okay, think about that stuff. Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of the above, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets - you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

You will note that I'm not commenting on your screen shots. That's on purpose - you have to do the analysis yourself first before we'll tell you what we think. It will help you much more in the long run if you learn how to analyze your performance for yourself.

P.S. re: your comment regarding our CATs, actually, the former Chief Psychometrician of GMAC (the org that makes the GMAT) just endorsed our exams. He studied them and concluded that they are a "very accurate predictor" of a student's score on the real test (quotes are his actual words). So you can trust our CATs to tell you where your score is at!